algebraic quantum field theory (perturbative, on curved spacetimes, homotopical)
quantum mechanical system, quantum probability
interacting field quantization
In (perturbative) quantum field theory, what is called Bogoliubov’s formula, originally due to (Bogoliubov-Shirkov 59) is an expression for the interacting quantum observables as the derivatives with respect to a source field of the generating function corresponding to a given S-matrix.
Originally this is an ad-hoc formula, motivated by the would-be path integral picture of the Feynman perturbation series (remark below) and mathematically justified by the fact that it does yield a causally local net of observables in causal perturbation theory (prop. below).
Much more recently it was shown that Bogoliubov’s formula indeed expresses quantum observables as systematically obtained by Fedosov deformation quantization of field theory (Collini 16, Hawkins-Rejzner 16).
Let be a spacetime of dimension and let be a field bundle. Let be a local Lagrangian density for a free field theory with fields of type . Let be the corresponding Wick algebra of quantum observables of the free field, with
the corresponding quantization map from local observables (“normal ordering”).
Let then
be a perturbative S-matrix scheme. Moreover let
be an adiabatically switched interaction-functional.
For a local observable and , write
for the generating function induced by the perturbative S-matrix (where the product shown by juxtaposition is that in the Wick algebra, hence the star product induced by the Wightman propagator).
The perturbative interacting field observable
corresponding to a free field local observable is the coefficient in the generating function (this def.) of the term linear in the source field strenght :
This is due to Bogoliubov-Shirkov 59, later named Bogoliubov’s formula (e.g. Rejzner 16 (6.12)). Based on this causal perturbation theory was formulated in (Epstein-Glaser 73 around (74)). Review includes (Dütsch-Fredenhagen 00, around (17)).
The assignment is also called the quantum Møller operator.
The coefficients of as a formal power series in the coupling constant and Planck's constant are called the retarded products.
(powers in Planck's constant)
That the observables as defined in def. indeed are formal power series in as opposed to more general Laurent series requires a little argument.
The explicit -dependence of the perturbative S-matrix is
where denotes time-ordered products. The generating function
involves the star product of the free theory (the normal-ordered product of the Wick algebra). This is a formal deformation quantization of the Peierls-Poisson bracket, and therefore the commutator in this algebra is a formal power series in that however has no constant term in (but starts out with times the Poisson bracket, followed by possibly higher order terms in ):
Now schematically the derivative of the generating function is of the form
(The precise expression is given by the retarded products, see Dütsch-Fredenhagen 00, prop. 2 (ii) Rejzner 16, prop. 6.1, Hawkins-Rejzner 16, cor. 5.2.) By the above, the exponent here yields a formal power series in , and hence so does the full exponential.
That the quantum observables takes values in formal power series of is the hallmark of formal deformation quantization. While Bogoliubov's formula proceeds from an S-matrix which is axiomatized by causal perturbation theory, this suggests that it actually computes the quantum observables in a formal deformation quantization of the interacting field theory. This is indeed the case (Collini 16, Hawkins-Rejzner 16).
For the analogous analysis of powers of in the S-matrix itself, see at loop order the section Relation to powers in Planck’s constant.
(interpretation of Bogoliubov’s formula via a “path integral”)
In informal heuristic discussion of perturbative quantum field theory the S-matrix is thought of as a path integral, written
where the integration is thought to be over the configuration space of fields (the space of sections of the given field bundle) which satisfy given asymptotic conditions at ; and as these boundary conditions vary the above is regarded as an integral kernel that defines the required operator in .
With the perturbative S-matrix informally thought of as a path integral this way, the the Bogoliubov formula in def. similarly would have the following interpretation:
If here we were to regard the expression
as a “complex probability measure” on the the configuration space of fields, then this formula would express the expectation value of the functional under this measure:
As the spacetime support varies, the algebras of interacting field quantum observables spanned via the Bogoliubov formula consistitute a causally local net of observables, hence an instance of perturbative AQFT.
(Dütsch-Fredenhagen 00, section 3, following Brunetti-Fredenhagen 99, section 8, Il’in-Slavnov 78)
For proof see this prop. at S-matrix.
The formula originates in
Its rigorous discussion in terms of causal perturbation theory is due to
The observation that the Bogoliubov formula yields a causally local net of quantum observables is due to
then rediscovered in
and made more explicit in
The recognition of the Bogoliubov formula as the result formal deformation quantization and specifically of Fedosov deformation quantization is due to
Giovanni Collini, section 2.2 of Fedosov Quantization and Perturbative Quantum Field Theory (arXiv:1603.09626)
Eli Hawkins, Kasia Rejzner, The Star Product in Interacting Quantum Field Theory (arXiv:1612.09157)
Review includes
Michael Dütsch, Klaus Fredenhagen, Algebraic Quantum Field Theory, Perturbation Theory, and the Loop Expansion, Commun.Math.Phys. 219 (2001) 5-30 (arXiv:hep-th/0001129)
Katarzyna Rejzner, Perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory, Mathematical Physics Studies, Springer 2016 (pdf)
Last revised on January 15, 2018 at 13:24:16. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.